For this years Benchmark Analysis on Online Annual Reportíng we decided to again widen our geographical focus. In order to get a better understanding for the current state of affairs in this core area of corporate communication we now included Companies listed within OMX Nordic 40. Full HTML conversion of Annual Reports is increasingly becoming the first choice for Scandinavian big cap companies!

Following our benchmark-analysis, where we, among other indices, explored the conversion of online annual reports of DAX 80 companies, we looked at the situation in interim reporting. The findings are simply disappointing. Whereas 56 % of all DAX 80 companies present their annual report as a full HTML-solution, the percentage shrinks to 24 % in interim reporting. Only 19 out of 80 companies make use of the potential of the internet in interim reporting issues. The stake of (user-unfriendly) JPG-shows (11 %) is lower than in annual reporting (26 %) either. This means that 65 % of all interim reports are provided as PDF, what adds absolutely no value to the report.

Today surveys in UK (SmithsRatings, The Group) and Germany (Kirchhoff (PDF)) underline the dominant role of HTML in online corporate reporting. Our yearly Nexxar Benchmark analysis shows this long-term trend since 2003 with now 40-60% of companies in British FTSE-100, German DAX-80, Dutch AEX-50 and US-american Dow-30 provide their annual report in a format that meets the basic usability needs of investors.

The most surprising outcome this year is the continuing trend towards HTML implementation in times of financial crisis! This underpins the increasing importance of the internet for corporate reporting. It also looks as if a flight to quality in times of crisis not only happens on stock markets. Only a full implementation as HTML websites enables the use of those tools for your annual report that we are used to in our every day work with the internet.

For the first time we made a benchmark survey on presentation of yearly published CSR reports in Germany. Out of 30 DAX companies 26 (87%) published a CSR report 2008. Analogue to our yearly survey on online annual reports we classified into 3 main categories: PDF, JPG-show or full HTML report.

In the last 4 weeks Gisi, Marco, Jürgen and I have gone through 378 corporate websites to find out the current status of online corporate reporting of big cap European and US companies. Since 2003 our survey includes companies of indices Dow Jones, EuroStoxx 50, DAX/MDAX, ATX, SMI and since 2005 FTSE 100 and AEX/AMX. Currently we are expanding this survey to include MIB, CAC and TSX. With this expansion more than 500 of the biggest companies in the world would be part of the biggest and most elaborate survey in the online corporate reporting industry.

For the sixth time we examined annual reports online of 374 listed European and US companies included in DAX, MDAX, Dow Jones, ATX, EuroStoxx 50, SMI, FTSE 100, AEX and AMX. First we distinguish 3 options for annual reports offered on the internet:

Company profile: nexxar has devoted itself entirely to the topic of digital reporting. This is unique, across the world. Since 2003 the Viennese company has published more than 500 reports on the web – primarily online annual reports and online sustainabilty reports.